09ASTANA778, KAZAKHSTAN: HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL’S ACTION PLAN LAYS OUT

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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASTANA 000778
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
STATE FOR SCA/CEN, DRL
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOVPRELPHUMKDEMOSCEKZ
SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL'S ACTION PLAN LAYS OUT
AMBITIOUS PRIORITIES
¶1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for public Internet.
¶2. (SBU) SUMMARY: On April 14, Kazakhstan's Presidential Human
Rights Commission (HRC) unveiled its National Human Rights Action
Plan for 2009-2012. The Action Plan, the first one the Kazakhstani
government has ever issued, outlines 26 areas in which the country's
human rights framework lags behind international standards and
proposes ambitious recommendations on how the government could bring
them up to par. Among other proposals, the Action Plan recommends
further liberalization to the recently-amended laws on political
parties, elections, and the media, and proposes significant changes
to the country's legislation governing religion, public assembly,
and the right to privacy. The document was drafted with the input
of several leading human-rights NGOs, and civil society leaders
welcomed it as a tool to push the government towards further
reforms. END SUMMARY.
AMBITIOUS PLAN UNVELIED
¶3. (SBU) On April 14, the Presidential Human Rights Commission
(HRC) unveiled a National Human Rights Action Plan for 2009-2012 at
an invitation-only meeting. This is the first time that the
Kazakhstani government developed a synthesized plan for improving
the human rights situation in the country. The Action Plan is based
on the HRC's 2007 Baseline Human Rights Report, which analyzed
Kazakhstan's legal framework for human rights against international
standards. In the foreword to the Action Plan, the HRC states that
the purpose of the document is to inform President Nazarbayev, the
Cabinet, and the Parliament on the human rights situation in the
country and to "lay out the priorities in addressing human rights
issues, involve the government and civil society in their
resolution, and coordinate the action of national human rights
institutions." The Action Plan is now before President Nazarbayev,
who is expected to sign it shortly. We expect it to be released
publicly once he signs it. It is possible that changes will be
incorporated into the final released version.
¶4. (SBU) Drafted with input from several leading human rights NGOs,
including the Human Rights Bureau and the Almaty Helsinki Committee,
the 177-page document candidly identifies numerous gaps in
Kazakhstan's human rights legislative framework and lays out
ambitious recommendations on how to address them within the
three-year timeframe. The Action Plan's twenty-six chapters deal
with the full spectrum of political, civil, social, and cultural
rights, ranging from the right to life (which includes
socio-economic rights), to the right to a fair trial, to the rights
of minorities. Perhaps most notably, the Action Plan makes several
concrete suggestions on how to further improve the laws on political
parties, the media, and elections -- the three laws that were
recently amended as part of Kazakhstan's Madrid commitments -- and
proposes several legislative changes that, if adopted, could open up
the country's political space.
FURTHER CHANGES TO THE MADRID LEGISLATION
¶5. (SBU) Freedom of Association: The Action Plan recommends that
the government streamline the procedures for registering public
organizations and NGOs and clarify the rules governing citizens'
rights to found or join organizations. Notably, it also recommends
further liberalization of registration for political parties,
although it does not lay out specific proposals on how to do so.
¶6. (SBU) Freedom of Speech: The Action Plan recommends that by
2011, the government further improve and streamline the process of
media-outlet registration, adopt a new law on access to government
information, decriminalize libel, and institute a statute of
limitations on libel cases.
¶7. (SBU) Freedom of Political Participation: The Action Plan
proposes that Kazakhstan's election law be further amended to lower
the minimum number of signatures necessary to register a political
party from 40,000 to 35,000; to lower the electoral threshold for a
party to get seats in parliament from seven percent of the vote to
five percent; and to require that representatives of opposition
ASTANA 00000778 002 OF 002
parties be able to participate in election commissions at all
levels.
STRENGTHENING OF CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS
¶8. (SBU) Right to Privacy: Drafted by the Yevgeniy Zhovtis, head
of the Human Rights Bureau, this section points out that despite the
existence of privacy-protection norms in Kazakhstan's legislation,
the right to privacy for individuals is frequently violated by
various government agencies, particularly the police, the Procurator
General's Office, and the Customs Service. The Action Plan
recommends that by 2011 the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and the
Procurator General's Office draft, with input from civil society and
the OSCE, a separate privacy-protection law that corresponds to
international standards.
¶9. (SBU) Religious Freedom: The section on freedom of conscience,
drafted by Almaty Helsinki Committee head Ninel Fokina, argues that
under the current legal framework, religious groups face far more
restrictions than other legal entities. It also asserts that the
requirement that all religious organizations be registered with the
government is counter to international standards. The Action Plan
recommends that the MOJ, in collaboration with NGOs, begin
publishing annual reports on the status of religious freedom in the
country. It also proposes that by 2011, Kazakhstan should amend its
religious legislation to bring it in line with the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Freedoms.
¶10. (SBU) Freedom of Assembly: The Action Plan points to several
legal norms that contradict international standards on peaceful
gatherings, specifically the requirement that all public meetings
must be approved by local authorities and the fact that the
authorities have the power to designate where those meetings can be
held (which usually means on the outskirts of the locale). It also
criticized the lack of clear legal definitions of the different
kinds of public gatherings - i.e., rallies, marches, pickets, and
demonstrations -- each of which has a different purpose and should
therefore be guided by different rules. To resolve these problems,
the Action Plan recommends that a new law on public assemblies be
adopted by the end of 2010.
CIVIL SOCIETY SEES PLAN AS A "LEVER" FOR REFORM
¶11. (SBU) Civil society activists welcomed the HRC's Action Plan.
Almaty Helskinki Committee head Fokina, who is a member of the HRC,
told us that the Action Plan's recommendations, although not
binding, can nonetheless be used "as levers" to push the government
towards further reform. "Once the President adopts the Plan, we can
begin hounding the agencies," she said. Yevgeny Zhovtis, who is
also on the HRC, shared his belief that the Action Plan "is far from
perfect," but is nevertheless an example that the government is
willing to engage with civil society on particular issues. As
evidence, he pointed out that the HRC Secretariat adopted his
contribution to the Action Plan without any changes. Zhovtis was
doubtful that all the recommendations will be put into action before
¶2011. In his opinion, however, the Action Plan's greatest asset
lies in the fact that it clearly outlines Kazakhstan's goals and
"shows the way" to achieving them. "Even if just some of the
recommendations are adopted, it would mark a serious step towards
reconciling Kazakhstan's legislation and international standards,"
he said.
¶12. (SBU) COMMENT: We agree with civil society leaders Fokina and
Zhovtis that the Action Plan is a very positive step, and can be
used as a tool to press for reform in a number of key areas. It is
highly unlikely that all the recommendations will be adopted, but
even if just some of them are, this would represent significant
progress. The fact that the HRC reports to the President is an
indication that the broad contours of the Action Plan enjoy support
by at least some key officials in the Presidential Administration.
END COMMENT.
MILAS

The information recorded on this site has been extracted from http://Wikileaks.org (Kazakhstan) database..

We wish to express our gratitude to Julian Assange and his team for making this data available as it is an important public record.

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